Neirai the Forgiven
Christian Guilds List Manager
I ran across this today while browsing Elitist Jerks information posts. It may be interesting to know.
According to EJ, brainless pets (that is, Force of Nature, Spirit Wolves, non-unholy death knight Ghouls, possibly Water Elementals, and particularly the Army of the Dead) are programmed to default to attacking the enemy that hates you the most.
Now, most pets nowadays have pet control bars to make up for their brainless states, but Armies of the Dead do not.
By 'brainless pets' I mean specifically temporary pets that you pull out during combat for short periods of time.
I'm pretty sure that we have all had the negative experience of pulling a pet out on a boss or on a specific set of adds only to have the pet go somewhere else and fight the wrong thing, often with wasted or disastrous effects. Death Knights' Army of the Dead spell is particularly notorious for doing so, since there is no way to redirect it after it latches on to the wrong target.
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If you DPS;
Any boss that you've been DPSing for the last 3 minutes is likely to hate you more than any other mob in the game. However, remember that an enemy that has aggro on you generally is considered to hate you more than an enemy that does not, so avoid pulling your temporary "brainless" pets out when new adds are spawning or when you are fighting an add; The example that comes to mind is the Blood Beasts that spawn during Deathbringer. Pulling out a temporary pet while they are spawning may cause the pet to attack them; pulling out a temporary pet while kiting them will likely cause the pet to attack them as well, even if you targeted it on the Boss.
2. A macro with the line /petattack can be used to redirect the pet to attack your current target. I'm not sure this works for Army of the Dead, and also be warned that a pet takes the /petattack command as a temporary, albeit prioritized, command. So if the pet kills what you told it to /petattack, it's going to go back to killing what it was fighting before you commanded it to do otherwise. I'm sure there are ways around it, but I've not cared enough to research them.
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If you are tanking as a DK (since other tanks don't have temporary pets):
1. If you're tanking a boss and have been tanking him all day, he's going to be your primary hate-giver, and your pets will stick to him no matter what you try to do. Your Army of the Dead isn't going to care much about the other adds.
2. If you pull your Army out on a boss or add target and then switch targets, unless you've built up several minutes of threat on the boss, the Army will switch too -- but after a few seconds, when your new tanking-built threat supersedes your prior boss threat. I.e., it is not a good idea to pull pets out as a first-strike DOT attack against a boss that you are going to be ignoring for the next couple of minutes.
3. If you pull your Army out on a boss that likes to shed aggro and who also has adds, your Army will change targets when the boss sheds. E.g. on Lady Deathwhisper in phase 1, I've pulled Army out on the Lady, trying to get that bonus DPS while I go off and fight the adds, only to have the Army go frolic in the adds a few seconds later. That's because Lady Deathwhisper sheds aggro in phase 1, and the adds therefore become the hate-filled mobs -- and the Army target.
4. If you pull your Army out on a boss that you are bouncing between yourself and another tank, be prepared for the Army to act weird when the boss gets taunted off of you. Don't be surprised if the Army suddenly decides that some other adds *Cough* Blood Beasts *cough* hate you more.
5. Like anyone else, if you pull out a pet right when new adds spawn, you're going to get weird results, as new adds typically have odd threat tables. You might find your pets choose different targets than you did.
-------------------
Anyhow, thanks to EJ for their incisive comment on the matter -- I didn't link the source since it basically just said "temp pets attack who hates you more" and nothing else. The above is some insights on what that means.
According to EJ, brainless pets (that is, Force of Nature, Spirit Wolves, non-unholy death knight Ghouls, possibly Water Elementals, and particularly the Army of the Dead) are programmed to default to attacking the enemy that hates you the most.
Now, most pets nowadays have pet control bars to make up for their brainless states, but Armies of the Dead do not.
By 'brainless pets' I mean specifically temporary pets that you pull out during combat for short periods of time.
I'm pretty sure that we have all had the negative experience of pulling a pet out on a boss or on a specific set of adds only to have the pet go somewhere else and fight the wrong thing, often with wasted or disastrous effects. Death Knights' Army of the Dead spell is particularly notorious for doing so, since there is no way to redirect it after it latches on to the wrong target.
------
If you DPS;
Any boss that you've been DPSing for the last 3 minutes is likely to hate you more than any other mob in the game. However, remember that an enemy that has aggro on you generally is considered to hate you more than an enemy that does not, so avoid pulling your temporary "brainless" pets out when new adds are spawning or when you are fighting an add; The example that comes to mind is the Blood Beasts that spawn during Deathbringer. Pulling out a temporary pet while they are spawning may cause the pet to attack them; pulling out a temporary pet while kiting them will likely cause the pet to attack them as well, even if you targeted it on the Boss.
2. A macro with the line /petattack can be used to redirect the pet to attack your current target. I'm not sure this works for Army of the Dead, and also be warned that a pet takes the /petattack command as a temporary, albeit prioritized, command. So if the pet kills what you told it to /petattack, it's going to go back to killing what it was fighting before you commanded it to do otherwise. I'm sure there are ways around it, but I've not cared enough to research them.
------
If you are tanking as a DK (since other tanks don't have temporary pets):
1. If you're tanking a boss and have been tanking him all day, he's going to be your primary hate-giver, and your pets will stick to him no matter what you try to do. Your Army of the Dead isn't going to care much about the other adds.
2. If you pull your Army out on a boss or add target and then switch targets, unless you've built up several minutes of threat on the boss, the Army will switch too -- but after a few seconds, when your new tanking-built threat supersedes your prior boss threat. I.e., it is not a good idea to pull pets out as a first-strike DOT attack against a boss that you are going to be ignoring for the next couple of minutes.
3. If you pull your Army out on a boss that likes to shed aggro and who also has adds, your Army will change targets when the boss sheds. E.g. on Lady Deathwhisper in phase 1, I've pulled Army out on the Lady, trying to get that bonus DPS while I go off and fight the adds, only to have the Army go frolic in the adds a few seconds later. That's because Lady Deathwhisper sheds aggro in phase 1, and the adds therefore become the hate-filled mobs -- and the Army target.
4. If you pull your Army out on a boss that you are bouncing between yourself and another tank, be prepared for the Army to act weird when the boss gets taunted off of you. Don't be surprised if the Army suddenly decides that some other adds *Cough* Blood Beasts *cough* hate you more.
5. Like anyone else, if you pull out a pet right when new adds spawn, you're going to get weird results, as new adds typically have odd threat tables. You might find your pets choose different targets than you did.
-------------------
Anyhow, thanks to EJ for their incisive comment on the matter -- I didn't link the source since it basically just said "temp pets attack who hates you more" and nothing else. The above is some insights on what that means.
who act like that. In any case, very interesting post.
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